As most of you now know, I am leading our church body toward the implementation of an Elder leadership model that, you as a congregation, voted to accept almost a year and a half ago and placed in the church Constitution and By-laws. Except for the new Deacon Family Ministry Plan, none of what I have been leading us through should be taking us by surprise. Someone might wonder, “Why the change? Is our current leadership model not effective?” Change is always hard for people and in many instances it can be frightening. And I know that going to an Elder Leadership model can seem like a huge leap in the dark. But let me assure you that as we are bathing this process in prayer and as our church leaders prayerfully discuss and pray over this, God will bring about a strategy that will help us all become the church body that he intends us to be.

I have tried to assure each of you through my weekly sermons that those who will help lead our church will be men of character. Men who seek the heart of God will be men who can never boast in themselves. These will be humble men who have a yearning in their heart for God’s church. These will be men who know the importance of teamwork, because as I shared with you last week in my sermon, no man can do this work alone. And that answers the second part of the question: “Is our current leadership model not effective?” In all honesty it is hard to evaluate effectiveness in a church. There are so many dimensions to church life that it is impossible to give a clear answer. But what I have noticed in all my years of ministry is that most often, churches will only rise to the level of the leadership that is given to it. One Senior Pastor trying to shepherd 200+ people will inevitably reach his saturation point, and life in the church tends to stagnate, level out, and soon start a slow decline. We are fortunate to have an Associate Pastor in Robert who gives wonderful leadership in areas that the Senior Pastor cannot give. So as a dynamic duo, we can do a lot, but again, if the church is to grow and the membership is to multiply, this brings ever-changing dynamics that even two men are incapable of shepherding. And yes, I am well aware that many people in the church are giving much time and energy to serve and lead in various ways. How I praise God for that. That will never change I pray.

When I arrived at FBC I noticed a church teeming with activity and a large contingency of people wanting to stretch their wings and really fly into a new era of growth and vitality. I noticed many men and women who were, and still are leading out in various ways. That excited me. But I also knew of some of the things your former Pastor went through to help get the church to this point, and I know what it did to him. I also saw Pastor Robert wearing many hats. There is so much to do that it felt immediately like a whirlwind. Administrative decisions are too numerous to describe here, and all the while I saw that people in need were still falling through the cracks of our church. It was immediately apparent to me that no two men could shepherd this church effectively, if in fact we believed that we could keep growing. While we have good Deacons in place, it is my understanding from scripture that a Deacon is a servant in the church. These are men who are called to serve and care for the church body. But there is a distinction between a servant and a leader. While a leader should always be a servant, a servant will not always be a leader of people. That is why the scriptures give us a clear distinction between the Elders (Pastors, Overseers, Bishops), and the Deacons. What is interesting is that in nearly every case, when Paul is writing to the leaders of the church, he uses the term “Elders” to describe the plurality of leadership needed to help lead the people of God in a “church” (singular).

What do Elders primarily do for a church? According to Acts 20:28-35 they serve primarily as the guardians of the church. They first put a guard over their own hearts by being in the Word and keeping their eyes on God. They feed and lead the flock of God. They serve to defend the flock of satanic attack. They keep the Word of God always before the people. They model lifestyles before the people that can be imitated. This is all done through a team effort which no one man is ever capable of doing alone. In our case, not only will they do all of this, but they will make sure that we continue to carry out the five core purposes for which our church exists and that is that we will continue to be evangelistic, making disciples, fellowshipping in love, growing in our ministries, and being devoted to regular worship of God.

While the Elders seek to lead, our new Deacon Plan will attempt to put into place a strategy that should provide greater care for the members of our church. With each Deacon having ten church families in his care, we hope to be able to lessen the number of people who can fall through the cracks of our church. I will say more about this later.

So I ask that you join with me in regular personal prayer, as well as our weekly corporate prayer times on Sunday nights, to ensure that we have God leading us all the way through. Let’s together watch as the Lord builds his house and raises up spiritual men to help lead.

In Christ,

Pastor Dan